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David Pimentel (professor)
David Pimentel was a professor of Insect Ecology & Agricultural Sciences in the Department of Entomology and Section of Ecology and Systematics at Cornell University. He made contributions in ecology, entomology, agriculture, biotechnology, conservation, and environmental policy. He was recognized as an international authority on interactions between humans and the environment. He published over 700 scientific items, of which 37 are books, and served on many national and government committees, including the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Science Advisory Council, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. State Department, and the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Health, Education and Welfare. He died in December of 2019 at the age of 94.

Early life and education
Pimentel was born on May 24, 1925, in Fresno, California and moved with his family to a farm in North Middelboro, Massachusetts. Before finishing high school, he volunteered for the Army Air Force and was trained as a pilot. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1948 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1951 and did a graduate fellowship at Oxford University. After obtaining his graduate degree, he was recalled to military service, serving instead for 4 years with the US Public Health Service in Puerto Rico. He returned to Cornell in 1955, where he remained for the rest of his life, becoming the Chairman of the Entomology Department and holding a joint appointment with Ecology and Systematics.

Scientific career
Pimentel began his career at Cornell studying pest control and DDT in house flies. During his time in Puerto Rico, he studied the introduced mongoose. In 1961, Pimentel published on several important topics in ecology, including diversity-stability, spatial patterns, and community structure. It was also the year that he presented his model integrating population dynamics and genetics that he called genetic feed-back. He later presented data for it. It was one of the earliest attempts at mathematically combining genetics with population dynamics. Pimentel's forays into the environmental field came out of his experiences on various government panels and study groups, especially his year as an ecological consultant to the Office of Science and Technology. His study of the energy inputs into the productions of corn in 1973 was published during the energy crisis of 1973 and became his most cited paper ever. It was followed up by a study of the energy inputs to beef production. By then, he was on his way to become a voice that was listened to on a variety of environmental issues through the numerous studies that he led and published having results that could be inspected. At times, as with the initial paper on the fossil fuel inputs to produce corn, he was subjected and withstood intense criticism from various groups that had their own axes to grind. As with later the later criticism raised by Bjørn Lomborg, their disagreement was on details, rather than conclusions.

Pimentel finished his career holding office or serving on numerous committees, study groups, publications and foundations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the President’s Science Advisory Council, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. State Department, and the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, and Health, Education and Welfare.

Personal life
He met and married Marcia Hutchins in 1949 while at Cornell. They had three children.